The President, Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Yusuf Lawal, has stated that the union called off its strike due to patriotism and intervention from Federal government despite offering its services at a loss due to the cost of subsidy removal and the rise in the dollar..…..CONTINUE READING>>>>>>
This is as he called on the federal government to look into the plight of tanker drivers and come up with policies that will improve their services.
Represented by the National Operations Coordinator, Kassim Bataiya, stated at a meeting between the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), the Nigeria Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria in Abuja on Friday.
According to Bataiya, currently, 100 percent movement of petroleum products and supply relies on petroleum tanker trucks, which makes the road too busy, deteriorating, and damaging at all times because of the high movement of petroleum products.
He said this had made it extremely difficult for truck drivers to operate, which was one reason their union went on strike.
“After nobody listened to negotiate with us, we had no option but to park the trucks and wait for further intervention. It is unfortunate that our services are not recognised by the federal government or even the citizens of this country.
“Let me give you a typical example, we are paid 30 naira per litre to lift PMS from Lagos to NNPC deport in Suleja, 30 naira per litre of 40,000 litres is 1.2 million naira, and the truck consumes a minimum of 900 litre, which is about 1.450 million naira, 250 naira above the fret rate in addition the 1.3 million naira fret rate is subject to 5% withholding tax deducted and payable to the federal inland revenue services which will be shared to the three tiers of government without even thinking or considering the drivers’ allowance, wages, and salaries, so it is difficult, if not impossible, for a transporter to load a truck from Lagos to any depot.
“If you are loading products from Lagos to Lagos , you are just paid 1 naira 34 kobo per litre, transporting a thousand liters is just 60 to 62 thousand naira per trip; it will take not less then 100 liter of diesel and you will give a minimum of 100 litres of diesel to the driver; 100 litres of diesel to the driver cost 160 thousand naira and 1500 per litre.
“The emergence of NARTO was a result of the failure of NNPC to put our pipeline in operation, if we have our pipeline across the country, which was designed to move petroleum products from where they were produced or imported to the various NNPC depots across Nigeria.
“It is particularly glad that the committee invited us to this meeting at this crucial time in our nation’s history, when our economy is faced by high inflation and the deteriorating exchange rate of the naira.
Bataiya further explained that transporters in Nigeria, especially petroleum transporters, were suffering under extreme operational challenges, which include the high cost of vehicle maintenance, the high cost of spare parts, the condition of our roads, insecurity, and more.
He also said that the high rate of dollars has hampered their operations as they are forces to purchase dollar from the black market to purchase accessories for their trucks.
“It is not possible for us to operate, all the components of trucks today is 100 percent depending on the importation. We import tyres, batteries, and spare parts; even the vehicles themselves are imported at a high cost of dollar exchange rate unfortunately for us, transportation is not even in the classification of dollar allocation.
“We are not entitled to apply for dollar allocation from the CBN to import the spare parts and accessories of the vehicle, it is not in the classification of the dollar allocation, so for us to import, we need to go to the black market and source the dollar for us to maintain the vehicles.
He said, “Recently, the Petroleum Industry Act was passed, which signifies the end of the deregulated environment were the activities of the centre are left to the power of demand and supply, which implies that payment of transporters fret is left to be negotiated between the marketers and transporters. You can remember that on May 29th, last year, the President, in his inaugural speech, announced the removal of fuel subsidy with immediate effect since then the cost of transportation has remained same.
“We have made all effort as obtained by the act to negotiate with the marketers with a view to arrive at an agree on a rate to assist us continue with the work we are doing to supply petroleum products across the country, all efforts to seat with marketers proved abortive; we have written letters severally to them; we have copied the authority; Mainstream, downstream, Honourable Minister of Petroleum; we met the DG DSS; we met the chief of staff to President, all our effort to ensure that there is an intervention between us and the marketers to come up with a solution on how to continue the supply of petroleum products.
“We are happy the committee invited us to hear from us even though we did not copy them initially, but due to their oversight, they have invited us intending to hear from us for a solution. The NNPC has designed over 33 deports across the country, which cut across all the geopolitical zones, and they have area offices.
“Mr Chairman, this is the reason most of the transporters under duress had to park and can’t continue to move the PMS. It is not that NARTO wanted to go on strike, no, we are investors. No investor is willing to lose money because once we park a truck for a day, we are also losing money. We know there are other innocent Nigerians who will suffer because of the negligence or nonchalant attitude of somebody or an agency.
“We did what we did out of patriotism and the intervention of the National Security Adviser and others, which is why we decided to continue rendering services at a loss, not that we were offered anything, but it is out of patriotism because we know Nigerians will suffer, and we don’t want that to happen as a result of our operations.
Speaking to journalists after a close door meeting with the representatives of the National Association of Transport Owners (NARTO) and Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners (PETROAN), the chairman of the committee, Hon Ikenga Ugochinyere, said that the meeting resolved to monitor the ongoing repair of the country’s national refineries.
He said the committee also agreed with NARTO and PETROAN to investigate the issue of retail owners who pay for petroleum products and the emergence of middlemen who now sell these products to the real petrol outlet owners, which is the reason why the price keeps rising.
“We also agreed for a stakeholders’ recommendation from NARTO, PETROAN, and others to help in tackling some of the immediate and long-term need in the industry to help ensure stability.
He further explained that the committee also agreed for a legislative action to look into how to reduce the freight cost by ensuring the dredging of the seaport that can open vessel landing corridors in other sectors apart from Lagos, Warri, Port-Harcourt, Calabar, and others.
“So that the prices of product movement can reduce and also reactivating the pipelines for petroleum product distribution and inclusion of modern technology and new system of monitoring to avert vandalism.
“And also, we agreed to consult further on the issue of amending the PIA to provide room for inclusion of stakeholders in the downstream sector petroleum distribution and retailing chain in the purview of NNPC so that they can be part of that retailing chain and be able to resolve challenges when they come up without us waiting for warning strike before stakeholders can come together and start tackling it.…..CONTINUE READING>>>>>>
